Cambridge Analytica was hired by Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign A US judge on Friday denied Facebooks request to dismiss a lawsuit by the Washington DC attorney general over the social media giants improper sharing of 87 million users data with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica The US capital city sued Facebook in December accusing it of misleading users because it had known about the breach for two years before disclosing it and had allowed third-party app makers to access user information without their consent Judge Fern Flanagan Saddler signed the order denying Facebooks motion to dismiss or alternatively stay proceedings the court said in a brief statement on its website It was the second legal blow for the worlds largest social network on Friday after a judge in Delaware ordered it to turn over to shareholders emails and other records on its handling of data privacy also linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the decision Cambridge Analytica hired by US President Donald Trumps 2016 election campaign used a personality quiz distributed on Facebook to gather profile information in order to predict and influence voter behaviour It shut down after the breach was disclosed Several US and European regulatory probes into Facebook ensued including investigations by multiple state attorneys general The Washington DC court could award unspecified damages and impose a civil penalty of up to 5 000 per violation of the districts consumer protection law or potentially close to 17 billion if penalised for each consumer affected The lawsuit alleges the firms quiz software had data on 340 000 DC residents even though just 852 users had directly engaged with it Thomson Reuters 2019 Comments